Smelting-furnace.



W. H. DOW.

SMELTING FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB.15{1912.

Patented July 16, 1912.

WALLACE H. DOW, 0F PIEDMONT, CALIFORNIA.

SMELTING-FURNACE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 116, 1912..

Application filed February 15, 1912. Serial No. 677,816.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, WALLACE H. Dow, a citizen of the United States,residing at Piedmont, in the county of Alameda and State of usefulImprovements in Smoking-Furnaces, of which the following is aspecification.

hisinvention relates to furnaces, and particularly to furnaces for thesmelting of ore and the melting of metals by the application of heat dueto the combustion of hydrocarbon in the furnace.

It is well known that in melting and smelting furnaces of the commoncoke burning type, the impurities in t-he'coke and other impuritiescontained inthesubstances used in smelting and melting of metals,greatly injure the quality of the reduced metal by' being retained inthe molten metal during the operations of melting and smelting.Furthermore the reduction of oresand metals by melting and smelting isin many districts made quite expensive by the use of coke, andespecially when in these districts crude hydrocarbons may be had inplenty, and at comparatively much less cost than coke.

It is the object of the present invention to devise and provide afurnace capable of melting and smelting ores and metals by the use ofhydrocarbons, thus not only rendering the reduction much less expensive,but further obtaining a much more pure metal in the furnace. 7

It is a further object of the invention to provide a furnace structureof such design, proportion and'structure that it may be readily charged,emptied, cleaned and tapped, and which furnace is protected by anincasement of metal properly braced to stand the strains incident to theprocess.

The invention consists in the whole, de tails of construction andcombination of parts more fully hereinafter described, and which isillustrated in the drawings, in which Figure 1 is a. longitudinal,vertical section of the furnace. Fig. 2 is aplan view partly in sectionof the furnace.

Many years of experience in foundry work and smelting operations haveled me to observe the value and necessity of a furnace capable ofreducing ores and metals to a molten state by the application of heatthrough the combustion of hydrocarbons. A furnace so constructed wouldbe more California, have invented new and easily operated due to theavoidance of shutting down operations for the charging of the furnacewith coke and smelting material, for the reason that the hydrocarbonburning furnace can be started instantly by the application of the fireto ignite the hydrocarbon fed to the furnace. I have further observedthatin' ordinary cupola furnaces, there is a tendency of the materialbeing handled to choke at the throat of the furnace at the bottom of thecupola, and it is one of the purposes of this invention to design andprovide'a cupola furnace provided with oil burning appliances for the.

reduction of material, the firebox of the furnace being arranged so asto avoid possibility'of the material being reduced choking at one side,and by extendingv the furnaee chamber in a peculiar manner, a mosteificient reduction is obtained.

To the end of accomplishing the several purposes and of providii'ig afurnace having the manifest advantages aboye stated, I have illustrateda furnace with a suitable fire resistant structure 2, vertically abovewhich projects a cupola 3, here shown as broken away, and which isprovided with a charging aperture whereby the material to be reduced maybe fed to the furnace.

The furnace structure 2 is shown as extending forwardly to one side ofthe cupola as at 5, wherein is formed a reducing chamber 6, of suitabledesign and proportions, the bottom of which is shown as concaved as at 7to form a pot for the molten metal,v

and rearwardly from the pot 7 there is projectcd and inclined upwardly abottom 8 which passes beneath the opening of the cupola 3, andterminates in a combustion chamber 9 in the rear extension 10 of thefurnace structure 2. The sides and bottom of the furnace. structure areshown as incased in the metal sheeting indicated at 11, which protectsthe furnace structure against undue expansion and injury duringoperations.

The present furnace is designed especially for the reduction of materialby the application of heat through the combustion of the hydrocarbon.The hydrocarbon is fed to the furnace through a plurality of burnerswhich are arranged severally in sets, burners 12 being arran ed at asuitable height in the front 5 of tie furnace. ()thcr burners 13 beingarranged in the top of the front 5 of the furnace, and still otherburnthe cupola 3, so' that as burners 14, at the ers 14, being arrangedto discharge the flame 2, in which it will be observed that the burnare12 in the front of the furnace, are set at an incline, so that theirline of flame, which is indicated by the dotted line a, Fig. 1, willpass across the chamber 6 and impinge upon the material in the throat bof the furnace, which is'closely arranged to the opening of the materialsettles inthe cupola the lowermost portion of the chargeis attacked bythe flame represented at a, which thus being reduced to the molten statewillgravitate down the inclined surface or bottom 8, into the pot 7 Theseveral. burners -12, are shown in plan view as converging slightly, sothat their flames all strike, with the utmost effect in the throat I).

' The uppermost burners 13 are located atthe forward portion of the topof the furnace body 5, and are inclined downwardly and backwardly towardthe rear 11 per edge of the metal pot 7 the purpose of the burners 13being to attack .the material moving down the lower end of the shelf orbottom 8, just as the molten material separates and runs into the pot 7.As shown in Fig. 2, the lines of movement ofthe flames from the burners12, and the flames from the burners 18, do not intersect; thus flames,as a, coming from the burners 13, pass between the flames represented ata, Fig. 2. The rearmost' portion of the furnace discharge into thechamber 9, thus efiiciently attacking and reducing the material issuingfrom the bottom ofthe cupola 3 into the rear throat b. It will beobseri'ed that by the present arrangement of burners, while the materialin the front of'the throat Z) is being attacked by the flamesrepresented at a, the rear portion of the material at the throat I) isattacked by the flames from the burners 14, the particular advantage,and object of the material mostand poking cupola of this being to avoidthe chance distant from the front of the throat I) from becomingclogged,thus reducing the rapidity of operation of the furnace. a

For the purpose of aiding the handling of the material in the furnace,the front body 5 is provided with a door 5,- which may be opened asnecessary for access to the interior of the furnace, and afteroperations have ceased in the furnace, the 3 may be cleansed from belowby a door 15, pivoted at 16, so that it may be opened as occasionrequires. During the operation of the furnace, melted material may bewithdrawn from the chamber 6 or pot 7 by a tap hole 17, Fig. 2. Air or.other medium for aiding combustion of the hydrocarbon may be admitted tothe furnace through suitable air conductors or fines 18. Having thusdescribed my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- 1. The combination in a smelting furnace, of a charging portion,a 'pot communicating therewith and sets of hydrocarbon burners, one setof burners discharging substantially crosswise through the space betweenthe discharge of adjacent burners of the other set. 2. A furnaceconsisting of a reducing chamber, a cupola with a floor declining andconnecting with one end of the reducing chamber, and sets of burnershaving their axes of direction inclined at different angles withrelation to the bottom of said chamber, one set of. said burnersdischarging between those of the other set.

3. A furnace consisting of a horizontally disposed concavebottomedreducing chamber, a cupola with a floor declining to con .nectwith thatof the reducing chamber, an

extension and a combustion chamber at the opposite side of the cupolafrom the reducing chamber, burners therein having their dischargedirected toward the junction of the two chambers, and otherburners inthe reducing chamber, said last-named burners discharging substantiallycrosswise through the space between the discharges of a pair of thefirst named burners, each. of said burners discharging toward the mouthof said. chamber.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

' WALLACE H. DOV.

lVitnesses H. A. Dow, HERBERT P. COWLEY.

